Alex and Adam discuss the marine-related images that were released by the organizers of the 2022 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest. Each year, the contest releases previews of a few of the images that were highly commended and uses these as marketing and to whet people’s appetites for the eventual winners. The team discusses the images, and attempts to discern what this year’s judges are looking for!
Nauticam has recently released some new optical products that have caused a lot of interest within the Wetpixel community and on the forums. We felt that the best way to find out more was to go directly to the source, and in this episode of Wetpixel Live, Nauticam owner and the man behind all Nauticam’s underwater optics, Edward Lai kindly shares his time with us. He discusses specifics of the new products and how they fit into the existing Nauticam range.
Alex has been able to try out Nauticam’s new 45° magnified viewfinders. These are available in two models, one specifically designed to cope with the wider exit pupils on (especially Sony) mirrorless cameras’ EVFs. In a discussion with Adam, they chat about magnified viewfinders in general, and then specifically Alex’s experiences with the new models. He concludes with a surprising finding as to which is his favorite!
In this episode of Wetpixel Live, Adam chats to Nauticam owner, Edward Lai about the history and his philosophy behind Nauticam’s development of a range of water contact optics, specifically designed for underwater image makers. He explains why in some circumstances, these optics can improve image quality, particularly in low light, and gives a very interesting take on the issue of distortion.
The increased availability of panorama stitching software within existing photo editing packages has added a tool to the underwater image maker’s arsenal. Alex and Adam discuss some creative ideas about how to take advantage of these new capabilities and offer some practical tips to help photographers.
Currently, one of the most often asked questions during Alex and Adam’s workshops and trips is about when they are going to take the plunge and change to mirrorless cameras. In this episode of Wetpixel Live, they attempt to explain their decision-making process about their current camera choices and how they view the future in terms of the best options for underwater image-makers.
Please forgive the somewhat irreverent title! Recently, while preparing for a dive, Wetpixel Live presenter Adam Hanlon had a heart attack, and he and Alex discuss the events surrounding it and his prognosis going forward. As a spoiler, expect to see Adam at a dive site near you sometime soon and in the interim, normal service is gradually resuming.
Typically, underwater photographers invest significant amounts of money and energy in obtaining the best lighting tools for their purposes. Almost all of these are powered by some form of rechargeable batteries. Alex and Adam discuss some of the challenges that these present and outline how they have evolved their charging hstrategies in order to ensure that they have light on their subjects when they need it.
Alex and Adam discuss how selecting and preparing images for stock libraries and publication is a different process from that of sharing them online. Specifically, some of the newer editing techniques are seen as potentially compromising image quality too much, and extreme edits of most descriptions are discouraged, with the emphasis being on providing images that are largely satisfactory in camera.